


A Reunion

by suzannahbee123



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Long Lost/Secret Relatives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-11
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2021-01-28 21:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21398755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/suzannahbee123/pseuds/suzannahbee123
Summary: After his rescue from HYDRA’s clutches, Bucky thought he was alone, his family all dead. Steve had said so. Returned from The Blip, Bucky learns, however, that Steve lied, and his sister wants to see him.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Rebecca Barnes Proctor
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	A Reunion

The paper in his hands was worn. Soft. Like it had been held in hands that weren’t his own over and over again, over many years,  _ decades.  _ The handwritten scrawl was faded and barely legible. But Bucky recognised it, even after a while lifetime, Bucky Barnes remembered his younger sisters handwriting,

“How… how long, Steve?”

The old man sat in front of him, still Steve Rogers, but completely different, sighed gently. Gnarled knuckles twitched and wrinkled skin shrouded slightly trembling fingertips on legs that used to be strong.

Now he looked like the young man he used to be. Just old.

“Since I woke up after you pulled me from the river, Bucky,”

Pain. Anger. Relief. All of that mixed in his gut, cramped it, bile rose and then died away. Bucky stares down at the address in Brooklyn Heights again,

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Something that looked like a smile, but  _ wasn’t,  _ rose on Steve’s face, “HYDRA weren’t over the  _ second  _ Maria pushed that button, Buck. Their prized Asset was gone, and they wanted leverage. I took it away from them,”

“Is she-?”

“Rebecca is still here. The Snap didn’t get her…”

Bucky huffed out a breath, rubbing his metal hand compulsively over his thundering heart. The beats were so loud, that he almost didn’t hear what Steve said next;

“Your whole family was miraculously untouched, Bucky.”

Shock numbed him. The heart that had been thundering suddenly stopped dead, like a train against a brick wall. Bucky had woken up this morning just thankful to not be dead anymore. A rare day where his whole future was  _ exciting _ and not a mystery and potential horror laden trap.

His only thought had been to go for a walk. Maybe buy a slice of pizza and sit under a tree in the sunshine. Idly watch the world thrive around him, happy in the knowledge he had  _ time  _ to get to that point too.

Bucky had woken up this morning thinking his only real family was the old man who _finally _looked his age, and the new Captain, who was the aggravating bane of his existence and who, if Bucky _had _to be honest with himself about, he would walk into _another_ war for.

Now, Steve Rogers calmly tells him that not only was his younger sister, Rebecca, still alive, but apparently she had a whole family of relatives.  _ He  _ had a whole family of relatives. They had been alive this whole time, and Steve had never told him.

“You told me she was  _ dead,  _ Steve!”

“I didn't say dead, Bucky. I said not around anymore, which she  _ wasn’t! _ I had her and her whole family relocated to Ireland until I  _ knew  _ HYDRA was gone and that-”

“That I was  _ safe?!  _ What, that I wouldn’t go full murder bot and try and murder my own sister?!” Bucky spat, standing up in a rush and thrusting his fingers through his hair in agitation, “I can’t believe you!”

Steve, smug, stoic  _ bastard  _ that he was, just shrugged and stood. Not as powerfully as before, and not with the same determination that he used to exhibit back when he had been so sick he often couldn’t stand… but he would still try.

_ “Steve! Would you please stay sat down? Ma said she would bring you some soup! It’s too cold for you to go outside yet!” _

_ Bucky watched Becky push his best friend back down onto the seat, smiling ruefully at how Steve  _ still  _ tried to stand back up, _

_ “I’m not an invalid, Becky, just let me- Ow!” _

_ “Don’t you call me that dumb name, Stevie!” Rebecca glared at him until he sat down, then, with a furious finger, she pointed at Bucky, “You keep him there or, so help me, I’ll get Ma to tan  _ both  _ your hides!” _

_ So Steve stayed, Bucky sat with him, and his baby sister brought them soup until his dad came back and agreed to drive Steve home. Because she had cared about Steve’s health almost as much as he had. _

“Be mad all you like, Buck. I guess I deserve it,”

“Damn fuckin’  _ right  _ you do! You went and got to live your happy ending, get old and withered, what about me, huh? Were you  _ ever  _ going to tell me my own baby sister was still alive? What would have happened if you hadn’t come back?”

A pause, Steve looked at his shoes, shuffled briefly; “I did a lot of things wrong in my life, but not this. Becky knew everything I did as soon as I knew it. You need to go talk to her, Buck. It’s time.”

Bucky could only stare at Steve as he ambled away, saying a quiet goodbye to Sam, and listened to the click of the door as he left. 

The address in Brooklyn called to him. His sister, Rebecca Barnes was there, alive and well, except… well, she wasn’t a Barnes anymore, apparently. Looking out the window, Bucky looked past Steve’s retreating form, and stared at the patch of sky he could see instead.

A whole lifetime since he had seen her… would she forgive him?

***

_ Knock knock. Knock. KnockKnock. _

Another memory from another time. The “secret knock” he had devised, with Rebecca, to use on her window when he wanted to sneak back in after curfew. Sometime he had been with a pretty dame, or sometimes with Steve when he hadn’t been well. Sometimes down at the YMCA training, or even working extra shifts at the shipyard to help their parents. Bucky did it all so that Rebecca never had to, but knew he would cover for her, if she ever asked.

War came calling though and she never got the chance.

His right hand raised, a gentle fist hesitating over the wooden door, his past and his future were waiting on the other side of the bevelled glass…

_ Knock knock. Knock. KnockKnock. _

The knocks came, he couldn’t say he  _ wanted  _ to stop them, but his stomach lurched, Rebecca would be 95 now, it’s not like she could come to the door herself-

A click, a slide, and a pair of pale and watery, powder blue irises peered out at him. Wrinkled fingers grasped the door frame and pulled it back further. The woman that stared out at him stood only slightly hunched, her hair white as winter snow and tightly coiled against her scalp, all there but  _ much  _ thinner than he remembered.

“J-James? Is that- oh my-  _ Bucky!” _

Her  _ voice…  _ a thousand thousand memories stormed through his head, Rebecca teasing him, complaining to him about old Mrs Miller down the street, whispering how Dot thought he was “swell”...

And when she cried the night before he had shipped out. His sister hadn’t  _ wanted  _ to, he could tell. They had promised to hug and wave and not even  _ think  _ about what the future could hold… or what it could take away. 

Bucky remembered how his dress shirt and gone black with her tears, and how his arms had ached from how tightly he held her. 

The past crashed into the present when the old woman who looked like his baby sister stepped forwards and gently cupped his face, bringing him down to meet her eyes,

“There you are,” a  _ smile,  _ just like the cheeky one from a million dinners sat across the table from each other, “still a handsome bugger, huh?”

Bucky remembered quips like this, his sister trying to tease him in front of his current infatuation. Remembers too, how he would throw some witty rejoinder back, after all, he was her older brother. No little girl could get the best of  _ him. _

All bright lines and sunny words died though. The only thing he could croak out was a name;

“Rebecca?”

“It’s me, James… I missed you, so,”

His tears dripped from her hands, her own soaked through another one of his shirts, but the Barnes siblings were reunited again. 

A sniff, a cheery smile, and Rebecca led him through to her house, “Let’s catch up. I don’t know about you, but I have a lifetime of gossip to tell you!”

***

Her house was beautiful. Only a few reminders here and there to indicate that someone  _ well  _ past their physical prime lived there. Handles along the hallway, what looked like a bedroom was set up where the dining room would have been, and through a partially open door, Bucky could see an extra large bathroom with a “wet room”, complete with yet more handles and a seat.

He looked around some more, it wasn’t just home help that indicated  _ age.  _ There were pictures  _ everywhere.  _ Black and white ones, where a smiling Rebecca in a white dress and veil looked up at a handsome man in a suit outside a church. Rebecca, her husband, and two cherubic kids on a beach…

The decades flew by in snapshots carefully collected in wooden and glass frames. Rebecca had lived her whole life with a smile. 

“You would’ve liked Frank, I think,” Rebecca spoke suddenly, gesturing to the frame that held pride of place in the centre of all the others, “he was a handsome, gentle, man. One of the kindest men I ever knew… he would always drive me to get ice cream every third Sunday, come rain or shine or snow, right up until…”

A watery smile, and Rebecca coughed, looking back at Bucky, “It was cancer. Terrible disease. Frank had it for a long time before it was diagnosed and when they finally did? It was too late… but at least I was there to say goodbye,”

“I’m so sorry, Rebecca…”

The words tasted like dust in his mouth. Worthless. They had been there, waiting to be spoken for so long, and when he says them, he can almost  _ see  _ the moths flying out with them.

Her whole life… he had missed weddings, births, deaths… how could he ever atone for this?

“What on earth are you sorry for, Bucky? If you’re going to apologise for anything, it should be having that long greasy hair,”

Shame, quick and agonising, rushes through him. Of course, she’s right. The rush to get out, to  _ find  _ her, overrode any sense of dignity he had. A splash of water over his face and a spray of deodorant and that was it-

“Bucky… I’m sorry. I was trying to joke with you. Like we used to,”

Those memories were easily accessible. Days and nights spent just talking and teasing, driving their parents crazy and getting Steve to join in when he could…

“I don't think I remember how, Rebecca,” Bucky whispered, “I- I… I’m not the same anymore…  _ you’re  _ not the same anymore…”

It was a harsh thing to say, but it had to be said. Bucky’s baby sister was an old woman who needed home help now. Rebecca had been twenty when he had last seen her, in a pretty dress and smiling tearful forced smiles. Now? 

Rebecca had lived her whole life in one… and he was  _ technically  _ on his fifth second chance at life...

“I know you want to, uh…  _ gossip,  _ and I know  _ I  _ want to hear every last thing you have to tell me but… I’m not the same brother anymore, Rebecca. I’ve no doubt Steve told you everything, and that you’ve looked up everybody… you know what I am now. What I’ve done,”

He looked up now, after twisting at his fingers so much his old baby sister had placed a frail hand on them to stop him. Her eyes, once so like his own and now rheumy and surrounded by deep crevices, were filled with tears. Holding his hands, no hesitation in grabbing his metal one, she whispered,

“Bucky, do you remember that name you used to call me? I sometimes forget… but I know I hated it and you teased me with it all the time…”

_ “Stop calling me Becky, dummy!” _

“Yeah,” Said slowly, the one word drawn out. Clueless as to why she would be asking…

“Can you call me that name? No one has done since…”

Closing his eyes, despair heavy against him for all he had missed, Bucky croaked, 

“Becky, I used to call you, Beck- Ow!” A surprisingly strong smack against his right hand, and Bucky looked up at his sister to see her grinning at him, her eyes twinkling with mischief instead of shining with tears,

“Don’t call me Becky, dummy!”

A blink. A deep breath…

“But Becky is cute!”

“Well, so is Jim, but ya don’t hear me calling  _ you  _ such a stupid name!”

“Yeah, because I would box ya ears, that’s why!”

Rebecca wore the same smile as he did, hers creasing her face so much that she became unrecognisable. But, Bucky realised, that was  _ good.  _ His sister's face, lined and wrinkled, showed she had lived her life happily, seventy five years worth of beautiful smiles carved themselves upon her.

It was an amazing sight.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you, Becky,” Bucky chuckled at the unamused look she sent him, “I Uh… I didn’t know you were alive. I thought… well, Steve only told me today,”

“I should hope so too, I told him to keep everything to himself until you were well,” Rebecca sniffed disapprovingly, and rolling her eyes at Bucky’s scowl.

“ _ You  _ told him to keep it a secret?! Becky, I coulda been here, I coulda  _ helped  _ and- OW! Jeez!”

A wooden cane, whipped out from the side of the armchair she was sat on, was swiftly smacked against his right bicep,

“Don’t you get all righteously angry at Steve, Jimmy!”

“I hate that name,”

“Good,” Rebecca snarked, “I don’t  _ care  _ if you’re unhappy about it! Not all of us have metal arms and super strength! Steve Rogers kept you  _ and  _ me, and most importantly,  _ our family  _ safe! Those  _ animals  _ that took you away from us would’ve been able to drag you back again in  _ chains  _ if they had been able to get a hold of me, but thanks to your best friend… they didn’t,”

Rebecca stopped, breathing heavily, hands still gripping his and her eyes on the lifetime of pictures on the wall,

“We owe him a hell of a lot. Don’t be a diva, Jimmy,”

Snorting, but not contradicting her, Bucky rubbed his upper arm, “You’re pretty spry for an old dame, Becky,”

“I ain't dead yet, Jimmy,”

She really wasn’t, his survivor sister. And Bucky didn’t  _ want  _ to admit it, the lost years still weighing heavily on him, it was down to Steve. He had lied, kept secrets, and gone back to Peggy and never told him about his sister… but she  _ was  _ alive…

“Steve was never going to  _ not _ let you know, Bucky,” She finally whispered. “He came here, not long after everyone came back, and told me that if I didn’t hear from him in two weeks than I was to go to this address upstate. I’m guessing that’s where  _ you  _ were,”

“I just… I coulda been here longer. I could  _ know  _ you better, Rebecca. You’re so-”

“I’m old, James,” Softly spoken, but loud enough to drown out everything else, “I’m just grateful that I can spend some time with my big brother again. That… that I can go to sleep… and know that if it’s my final one, that the  _ whole  _ of my family is safe and well.”

Tears came, welling in his eyes and distorting her face, “Please, Becky, don’t talk like that, I only just got you back, I-”

“Death is a part of life, and you would know that better than anyone. I have lived mine, I just want you to live yours.”

A squeeze of his hand, and she twisted slightly, bringing down a box from the bookcase next to her, “The army sent me these after Azzano… I kept them close for you, here,”

A clinking sound, and cold metal was being pressed against his palm. Bucky let the chain unravel until it hung from his fingers.

_ His dog tags. _

Past and present collided, and the tears rolled down his face unchecked. Rebecca didn’t say anything, she didn’t need to. Just held his metal hand and let him cry. 

“I never thought I’d see these again… thought they were melted by-”

“Do not mention that name in this house, James,” 

Bucky shut up. Some tones just aren’t worth arguing with.

“I sometimes felt stupid. I would have this  _ feeling…  _ that you just  _ couldn’t  _ be gone. My big brother was always so full of life, too  _ bright  _ to be snuffed out so easily,” a watery chuckle, “and here you are! You’re a Phoenix, Bucky. You rose from the ashes, stronger and more powerful than before,”

His fingers shook, but he donned the tags again, tucking them under his shirt,

“Thank you, Becky,”

“Love ya, Jimmy,”

He hugged her then, as gently as he could, and pressed a kiss to her temple, “Love ya too,”

“Want me to cut this hair for you, Jim? Can’t have a handsome bugger like you scaring away the girls because you look like a yeti!”

“Rebecca! I’m not even-”

“Or boys! If you want to attract  _ anyone  _ you need to look at spiffy as you used to, Bucky! Even men take care of themselves nowadays, not like the nineties, ooh those were dark times for the state of men’s appearances,” Rebecca stood and, still holding his hand, started to lead him to the bathroom, “Jospeh, my great grandson, he used to come over and I would  _ despair  _ at his clothes and hair,”

“How many grandkids?”

Rebecca sat him down, and busied herself with grabbing some scissors and shears. She cut his hair, trimmed his beard, and gave him a full family history in the thirty minutes it took for her to do it.

“If you’re happy, I can start to organise for you to meet everyone? I know they’re eager to meet you,”

“Uuuhhh…” Bucky stared at himself in the mirror. The face looking back was one he hadn’t seen in seventy five years.

“There's my handsome bugger of a brother,” Rebecca muttered, lower lip trembling, “still the most dashing man in Brooklyn,”

The past and present collided, his old baby sister at his side and his long lost dog tags around his neck. Everything had changed. 

“I would love to meet my family, Becky, as soon as possible,”

The changes  _ this _ time though? They were  _ good. _


End file.
